Welcome to Boardsort™ - Learn - Sell - Profit -

Hey all,

My most recent score of boards has heat sinks glued/pasted directly on the largest main chip on the board.

I attempted to do my normal twist and pop method with vicegrips; well it pulled the chip off too!

2nd method was to use a hammer and small screwdriver. This method worked on the additional 3 I processed.


Does anyone have any more efficient methods? I feel dumb for asking these questions. And now I have a “downgraded” board that was not supposed to be “downgraded” as all I was trying to do was clean the heatsink off.

I guess this is the only way I learn but messing up.

_________________
Learning to grade or grading to learn.

I use some heat, lp torch works great just don't go crazy with the heat.

Thank you! I believe I have a heat gun but I do not own a torch. I will see if I can order one on Amazon. Do you recall where you bought yours @lubin?

_________________
Learning to grade or grading to learn.

Try the heat gun first. If it sounds/feels/looks like the chip is coming up after heating with the gun, try being a little more aggressive with the heat gun and try again before going with a torch.

You can get the little blue or yellow tanks from Walmart or your choice of hardware store. I think my current torch head was a gift, probably from Amazon

_________________
Here to learn more so I can recycle more
My grades are my own opinion and not an official grade from Boardsort

IMO you have 3 real options.
1, risk it and pop it off hoping you don't pull the chip off the board. I find twisting works best for the white stay puffed marshmallow man looking glue. you know the mushy kind.
2, use heat to loosen the glue. this is the best way to go.
3, freeze the board to make the glue brittle. this works best for the older type of glue used on 3dfx cards, the kind that is like a rock. I almost never seen it used elsewhere but its worth a try if heat does not work.

I use a robogrip wrench and it takes care of 99% eg your vice grips.

I’ve done the same with a hammer and screwdriver.

Before resorting to heat I suggest torque.
Get one of those dirt cheap replaceable blade paint scrapers. The ones with a screw in the middle of the blade.
Remove the scree, recycle the scraper and blade.
The thick backing bracket fits into most chip sized sinks and allows you to use a wrench or hammer to torque the sink off.

_________________
42 6F 61 72 64 73 6F 72 74 2E 63 6F 6D

A stiff putty knife works really well for me. Also if i can seperate the popped off chip from the heatsink, i will tape it back in place and write”sorry” on the tape. So far they have still accepted the boards without downgrading.

I truly thank everyone again for helping me out. You all are so kind and happy to have forum members that aren't condescending or rude to a novice like myself.

_________________
Learning to grade or grading to learn.

Ugh, I used ot have accounts on a lot of forums, not sure why people feel the need to be rude these days but a lot of them started to get filled by jurks. I literally got a death threat and harassed buy like a dozen users on it for trying to give away old PC parts before sending them off to be scraped on vogons as I no longer have a way to sell parts. The internet sure be full of rude folks these days. This place however is full of good people!

If you ever need more help feel free to ask. I'm sure someone will chime in and help.

Yes. I find some people are downright nasty and mean over the internet. Never used to be that way back in mid-2000s on forums.



Just an update for anyone that might have a similar heatsink issue. I am using an old Milwaukee Heat Gun with two settings Low/High. I am using the Low setting. I apply heat directly over top the heatsink without touching for approximately 10 seconds. Lastly I use vice grips and the heatsinks pop off like you are pulling off candy buttons (remember them!).

_________________
Learning to grade or grading to learn.